Baroness Scotland must resign. It’s a disgrace that she hasn’t done so already and her PPS should be applauded for taking a principled stance.
It’s not just that she’s a government law officer who has been found breaking the law. Harriet Harman was charged with speeding whilst serving as solicitor general. That was embarrassing but not, in my view, sufficient to bring about a resignation. Lord Ahmed had the whip withdrawn after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. It is common sense that the political price needs to be graded according to the seriousness of the breach of the law.
It’s not just the crass way in which she handled it. It was truly embarrassing that Baroness Scotland decided to liken her penalty to a minor traffic offence. Particularly as the sums involved £5,000 fine for Ms Scotland, £60 for someone caught speeding, are so at odds with each other. And that she termed her digression a “technical” breach of the law. Are there any other ways to break the law? On these points, though, she was probably just poorly advised (though one hopes and expects her legal knowledge to be deeper).
And there are lots of times when newspapers call for a resignation and the minister shouldn’t resign. It is too easy to call for a minister to resign for the failings of their officials. There are lots of them and few ministers and officials resign or are dismissed too infrequently. And this country would be far better governed if, for example, David Blunkett hasn’t resigned or Peter Mandelson the second time around. The resignation will hurt the prime minister who already has too few women and too few BME people in the government. And it will hurt even more following his backing for her yesterday.
The reason for this resignation must be that Baroness Scotland was part of the team that introduced the law which she broke. It is the equivalent of finding out that the Daily Express employed illegal immigrants to write its newspaper. That the law was a stupid one, impossible to comply with fully and with draconian penalties, will only serve to give Ms Scotland something to reflect on when she is on the backbenches. How can she have any credibility as Attorney General if she tries to continue?